Ice Age: Continental Drift
| music = John Powell | cinematography = Renato Falcão | editing = James Palumbo David Ian Salter | studio = Blue Sky Studios 20th Century Fox Animation | distributor = 20th Century Fox | released = | runtime = 88 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $95 million | gross = $877.2 million }} Ice Age: Continental Drift is a 2012 American 3D computer-animated comedy adventure film directed by Steve Martino and Michael Thurmeier. It was written by Jason Fuchs and Michael Berg, and features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Nicki Minaj, Drake, with Jennifer Lopez, and Queen Latifah. It is the fourth installment of the ''Ice Age'' series, produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the first sequel in the series not directed by Carlos Saldanha, and the second Ice Age installment that utilises Digital 3D. It was released in the US on July 13, 2012, three years after its predecessor Dawn of the Dinosaurs. This was the first Ice Age film to be presented in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film became a box office success, with a worldwide gross of over $877 million, marking it the highest grossing animated film of 2012. A fifth film, titled Ice Age: Collision Course, is scheduled for release on July 22, 2016. Plot While Scrat inadvertently causes the break up of Pangaea, Manny and Ellie are forced to deal with the trials and tribulations of their teenage daughter Peaches, who has trouble fitting in with her peers. Ellie tries to support her daughter, but Manny becomes exceedingly over-protective. Meanwhile, Sid's family returns, but only long enough to drop off the elderly Granny before abandoning them both. Shortly after, a continental break-up separates Manny from the herd. Trapped on a moving chunk of ice with Sid, Granny, and Diego, Manny has no choice but to ride out the current. Meanwhile, a giant land shift encroaches on Ellie, Peaches, and those remaining on land, causing them to make their way toward the land bridge. Meanwhile, Scrat, in a subplot, finds an acorn that has a treasure map on it that directs him towards an island. After violent weather pushes them further away from land, Manny's group is captured by a band of pirates sailing on a floating iceberg led by a Gigantopithecus, Captain Gutt, who attempts to press them into his crew. When they refuse, Gutt tries to execute them, leading to their escape, which inadvertently cause the ship and food supplies to sink. Gutt's first mate, a female sabretooth named Shira, joins them after she is left for dead. The herd washes ashore on Switchback Cove, which gives a current back to their home. Manny coordinates a plan using a group of hyrax to steal a new iceberg ship that Gutt is planning to use, and they are able to escape using the ship, Shira staying with Gutt. Gutt forms another ship and plans to seek revenge on Manny. After narrowly escaping a pack of sirens, Manny, Sid, Diego, and Granny return home only to find the land bridge destroyed and that Gutt has beaten them and taken Ellie, Peaches, and the rest of the herd hostage. A fight issues, as Granny's pet whale Precious arrives and fends off Gutt's crew. Manny defeats Gutt in a final duel on an ice floe and reunites with his family and friends. Gutt subsequently encounters a siren that assumes the shape of a female Gigantopithecus, and is eaten alive. With their home destroyed, Precious takes the entire crew, including Shira to a lush island. In the film's epilogue, Scrat discovers the island on the map, known as Scratlantis (a parody of Atlantis), but his uncontrollable urge to hunt acorns in the acorn-rich city inadvertently causes the entire island to sink when he unplugs an acorn drain holder; Scrat is then ejected into the newly created desert now known as Death Valley, California. Voice cast * Ray Romano as Manny, a Woolly Mammoth who is Ellie's husband and Peaches' overprotective father. * John Leguizamo as Sid, a lazy, but caring Ground Sloth. * Denis Leary as Diego, a Smilodon that is in love with Shira. * Seann William Scott as Crash, an opossum, Eddie's brother, and Ellie's close friend and adoptive brother. * Josh Peck as Eddie, an opossum, Crash's brother, and Ellie's close friend and adoptive brother. * Peter Dinklage as Captain Gutt, a Gigantopithecus. Jeremy Renner was originally announced to voice Gutt. * Wanda Sykes as Granny, Sid's 80-year-old grandmother. * Jennifer Lopez as Shira, a Smilodon, and Gutt's first mate, until she is separated from her crew and falls in love with Diego. * Queen Latifah as Ellie, a Woolly Mammoth who is Manny's wife and Peaches' mother. * Josh Gad as Louis, a molehog and Peaches' best friend who has a crush on her. * Keke Palmer as Peaches, a teenage Woolly Mammoth and Manny and Ellie's daughter * Nick Frost as Flynn an elephant seal. * Aziz Ansari as Squint, a rabbit (Palaeolagus) who is part of Gutt's crew. * Drake as Ethan, a mammoth that Peaches has a crush on. * Nicki Minaj as Steffie, a mammoth who is Ethan's friend and makes fun of Peaches. * Alan Tudyk as Milton, Sid's father and Hunky Siren. * Ester Dean as Sloth Siren and Gutt's Siren * Kunal Nayyar as Gupta, a Bengali Badger (Chamitataxus). * Rebel Wilson as Raz, a kangaroo (Procoptodon). * Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo as Uncle Fungus, Sid's Uncle. * Joy Behar as Eunice, Sid's mother. * Alain Chabat as Silas, a Blue-footed booby. * Heather Morris as Katie, one of Steffie's best friends. * Chris Wedge as Scrat, a sabre-toothed squirrel. * Patrick Stewart as Ariscratle, a saber-toothed squirrel from Scratlantis.http://time.com/3954363/patrick-stewart-voices/ Production The first details of the sequel were announced on January 10, 2010, when The New York Times reported that Blue Sky was working on a fourth film and was in negotiations with the voice cast. Fox later confirmed on May 5, 2010, that Ice Age: Continental Drift would be released on July 13, 2012. Soundtrack Ice Age: Continental Drift is the soundtrack of the film scored by John Powell and was released on July 10, 2012. Track listing Featured in the film was "Chasing the Sun", performed by The Wanted the film's first theme song, and the second theme song "We are (Family)" written by Ester Dean, performed by Keke Palmer. Both songs play during the credits and are not available on the soundtrack. "Chasing The Sun" can be found on The Wanted's 2012 American debut extended play, The Wanted EP, while an alternate version of "We are (Family)" sung only by Keke Palmer is available for download. In addition to the original score by John Powell, the film also features Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Powell explained his decision: "At the beginning of the film, the creation of the geographical world as we know it seemed just such an immense idea to musically convey, that I gave up entirely and used Beethoven's Ninth Symphony instead. With a bit of obscenely crass re-orchestration and blatantly cheap arranging tricks normally associated with strippers, we got it to fit the action perfectly. But the cost that I must now bear is having to live forever in hiding, since the "Beethoven Society" issued a "fatwa" on me." Release Ice Age: Continental Drift had its premiere on June 20, 2012, at the CineEurope film distributors' trade fair in Barcelona. It publicly premiered on June 27, 2012, in Belgium, Egypt, France, Switzerland, and Trinidad, and was released on July 13, 2012, in the USA. The film is accompanied by the short animated film The Longest Daycare featuring Maggie Simpson. Marketing As a promotion for Ice Age: Continental Drift, Fox released two 3-minute short segments from the film, titled Scrat's Continental Crack-up and Scrat's Continental Crack-up: Part 2. The first part premiered as a theatrical release attached to Gulliver's Travels in 2010, and it was released on-line on January 6, 2011, on iTunes Movie Trailers. The second part was released on November 16, 2011, on iTunes, and debuted in theatres with Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. The first part shows how the Scrat's actions lead to split of the continents, while in the second part, Scrat's underwater pursuit of acorns leads him to a pirate ship. The film was featured on Tommy Baldwin Racing's #10 car driven by Tomy Drissi for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 held on June 24, 2012. Home media Ice Age: Continental Drift was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on December 11, 2012. Reception Box office Ice Age: Continental Drift earned $161,321,843 in North America, and $715,922,939 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $877,244,782. Its worldwide opening weekend totaled $126.9 million. Worldwide, it is the thirty-ninth highest-grossing film, the fifth highest-grossing film of 2012 (also, the highest-grossing animated film of that year), and the second highest-grossing film in the ''Ice Age'' series. Overall, it is the eighth highest-grossing animated film. ;North America In North America, the film earned $16.7 million on its opening day and $46.6 million on its opening weekend, which was the second-largest opening weekend in the Ice Age series, only behind The Meltdown ($68 million). The film closed from theaters on February 7, 2013 with $161 million, thus standing as the lowest grossing film in the series. ;Other territories Outside North America, it is the twelfth highest-grossing film, the third highest-grossing 2012 film and the second highest-grossing film distributed by Fox. It set an all-time record among animated films, until Disney's Frozen surpassed it. Ice Age 4 had a two-day (Wednesday-Thursday) opening of $11 million from 12 markets. On its opening weekend (through Sunday), it earned first place with $80.3 million from 34 markets, opening #1 in all of them. The film set an opening-day record in Nicaragua and a Thursday-opening record in Guatemala. In Peru, it earned the second highest-grossing opening day and the highest for an animated film. It also set opening-day records for an animated film in Russia and in Sweden and achieved the second highest-grossing opening day for an animated film in France ($4.5 million), Colombia, Argentina and Chile. The film set opening-weekend records for any film in Argentina (first surpassed by Iron Man 3), Colombia, Peru, Central America and Chile, and opening-weekend records for an animated film in Norway, Sweden (surpassed by Frozen), Ecuador and Bolivia. Its largest opening weekends were recorded in Russia and the CIS ($16.9 million), China ($15.7 million), and France and the Maghreb region ($12.8 million). It is the second highest-grossing film in Latin America with at least $181 million, only behind Marvel's The Avengers. Critical response Ice Age: Continental Drift received generally mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 37% of critics have given the film positive reviews, with a rating average of 5.1/10 based on 131 reviews. The consensus statement reads, "Ice Age: Continental Drift 3D has moments of charm and witty slapstick, but it often seems content to recycle ideas from the previous films." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 49 based on 29 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four and stated: "Watching this film was a cheerless exercise for me. The characters are manic and idiotic, the dialogue is rat-a-tat chatter, the action is entirely at the service of the 3-D, and the movie depends on bright colors, lots of noise and a few songs in between the whiplash moments." Megan Lehmann of The Hollywood Reporter said: "It's familiar, drawn-out shtick, and the humor lacks the subtlety of the first and best Ice Age, but there are some visually inventive high points." Simon Brew, writing for Den of Geek, gave a very positive four-star review, saying that "not only is Ice Age 4 arguably the best in the franchise yet, it's also, a little surprisingly perhaps (given that it's a fourth movie in a franchise, turned around on a strict cycle), turned out to be thoroughly, thoroughly entertaining family blockbuster." CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Continental Drift an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. Video games Ice Age Village is a mobile video game, developed by Gameloft, and was released on April 5, 2012 to iPhone, iPad and various Android devices. Ice Age: Continental Drift – Arctic Games, a video game based on the film, developed by Behaviour Interactive, published by Activision and was released on July 10, 2012 for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, and Kinect for Xbox 360. Sequel A sequel, titled Ice Age: Collision Course, is set to be released on July 22, 2016. See also * List of animated feature-length films * List of computer-animated films References External links * * * * * * Category:2012 films Category:2012 3D films Category:2012 American animated films Category:2012 computer-animated films Category:2010s fantasy films Category:20th Century Fox films Category:American films Category:American 3D films Category:American sequel films Category:Blue Sky Studios films Category:Children's fantasy films Category:English-language films Category:Films about animals Category:Films directed by Steve Martino Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Films set in Atlantis Category:Films set in prehistory Category:Computer-animated films Category:Ice Age (franchise) films Category:Pirate films Category:Seafaring films